Egg talks to crack French problem

ONLINE bank egg, down 6 1/4p to 145p, is in talks to form a joint venture for its troubled French operations, which plunged into a £69.5m loss in the first nine months of this year. Strong growth in UK profits, up to £56.7m from £21m last time, were not enough to compensate. Overall losses widened to £24.9m from £3.9m. Personal loan and card balances rose by £1.1bn to £4.4bn, but chief executive Paul Gratton said egg's customers are not 'bingeing' on credit.